CES: Samsung Presser Meanders as Director Michael Bay Walks Off Stage

By Tiernan Ray

True to form, Samsung Electronics's (005930KS) press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show, which took place at the Mandalay Bay hotel along with a host of others, proved to be one of the most heavily in demand, as it is every year, with tons of people turned away and sent to a room upstairs to watch on a big-screen monitor.

The company's president for its Americas division, Tim Baxter, proclaimed 2014 the year of “the Internet of things.”

Baxter noted that in 2013, over half of all Americans used a tablet computer. Baxter rambled over a bunch of different items — a new suite of service capabilities for the home, a partnership with the PGA, and a surprise guest appearance by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.

Baxter then tossed the baton to Joe Stinziano, executive veep of the Americas. He said he would “throw you a curve,” referring to the company's curved television sets, one of which is the world's largest curved set, at 105 inches. It displays in Ultra Hi-Def, or 4K, as it's commonly called.

Other sets bring innovations such as “depth enhancement,” for a 3-D picture without glasses.

Stinziano brings up on stage the director of the Transformers series, Michael Bay, leading to a truly strange moment. Instead of talking about what the curved sets can do for great content such as his movies, Bay stammered a bit, apologized, turned around on stage, and walked off stage.

To his credit, Stinziano handled it like a pro, and bounced back with aplomb, remarking “Michael's got a lot of great stuff going on.”

He then went on with the show, showing a new “bendable” form of television, which, at the press of a button turns from a normal flat display to a curved display. His on-stage demonstration drew gasps from the crowd in the live audience. Stinziano then passed the baton to a presentation of refrigerators. The segment is a highlighting of the company's work with celebrity chefs.

Then it's on to laundry. Two thirds of consumers feel like laundry is a never-ending chore. (Not the only thing that feels a bit like a never-ending chore.) “how about a hand for our 9000 series front and top-load?” The machines can wash a load of laundry in half an hour.

And now it's on to mobile devices. The company's head of all things tablet, Nanda Ramachandran, takes the stage. He says people are constantly wanting to do more with their tablet computers. Samsung is making a new series, called “Pro,” in two lines, “Note Pro,” and “Tab Pro.”

The company is unveiling four models today. The first point to discuss is a 12.2-inch display with 4 million pixels, a “WQXGA” resolution. Ramachandran expkaons that apps on tablets today are stuck in different folders. The company is introducing something called a “magazine” user interface that allows one to more easily switch back and forth between screens of related types of applications. For productivity, he emphasizes the ability to swipe upward from the screen's bezel and sprout a new area of the screen. This is not unlike the split-screen features that Samsung tablets have already had, but with the ability to proliferate numerous on-screen windows.

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